Tourism facilities and services
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Chapter 6 TOURISM FACILITIES AND SERVICES
As of CY 1996, there are 50 DOT accredited hotels in Central Luzon providing 2,487 accommodation facilities to domestic and foreign visitors. Most of these hotels are classified as standard and economy hotels. Of these, 30 are located in Angeles City, Pampanga. There are 107 resorts registered with DOT in Central Luzon, 47 of which are located in Zambales. Majority of the resorts in Zambales and Bataan are located along their respective provincial coastlines. Aside from hotels and resorts, there are 121 lodging houses/motels in Central Luzon providing 364 accomodation facilities (see Table 6.1).
The region has good restaurants that cater to visitors offering varied menus which range from exotic snake, giant lizard and locust dishes to hamburger and fries. The traditional Bulacan cuisine is strongly promoted in 5-Star hotels and restaurants in Metro Manila. Pampanga is known for its good and tasty foods, while the mountain areas of Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Zambales for their exotic dishes. The coastlines of Bataan and Zambales are noted for its seafood preparations. As of 1995, a total of 150 restaurants are registered with the DOT. There are 41 convention facilities capable of carrying 20,830 persons at one time. Most of these convention facilities are located in Pampanga and Zambales. About 66 stores are offering handicrafts while about 13 are manning the travel and tour operations (see Table 6.1).
Numerous beaches are abound in the Region, most of which are still undeveloped. Its coastline is suitable for water and marine sports. Central Luzon also abounds in historical, cultural and religious attractions such as old Spanish churches and cathedrals, festivals, monuments and museum with historical linkings. Several natural wonders are also found in Central Luzon such as waterfalls and volcanoes. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo resulted in the formation of two lakes: one in San Marcelino, Zambales which is located atop a mountain and the Sacobia Lake in Bgy. San Vicente, Bamban, in the province Tarlac.
The Region is the host of two economic zones, namely: Clark and Subic Bay. It caters to industrialization, commercialization and the tourism industry.
About 81 municipalities are served by water districts out of a total of 122 municipalities/cities in the entire region. The share of households having access to Level II and III is 40.38% for the entire region, with Bataan province leading its provision of these services against other provinces at an average of 55.7%. In terms of total share of households having access to all levels, the region enjoys a 94.18% share with Pampanga and Tarlac having the most number of households having access with a good record of 97.4 and 97.2, respectively (Table 6.2). Level II and III provide water of acceptable standards. Over 80% of those served populations obtain water from wells. Mountain located barangays use rain water and surface water for domestic needs.
Most towns in Central Luzon do not have a comprehensive waste water disposal system. All rely on septic tanks and on pit privy system or the wrap and throw systems of discharging the human waste. Enforcement of proper waste disposal is minimally done by way of requiring applicants of new buildings to provide septic tanks as part of the building permit process. The use of septic tanks and the consequent treatment and proper disposal of effluent are still considered the most economical waste water disposal system for Central Luzon. This is done either by using two or three cell septic tank with appropriately sized disposal fields, or on a system of sewer lines with water courses as disposal points. This system is mostly found in subdivision areas. Methods in disposing solid wastes in Central Luzon are rudimentary. Open dump sites are commonly seen in urban municipalities and cities which are poorly managed and maintained. Table 6.3 classifies the households in Central Luzon in terms of garbage disposal methods they are accostumed to.
Succeeding discussions are referred to Table 6.4. Postal Services This type of service is mainly provided by the government. As of CY 1995, about 166 postal stations have been providing the mail needs of 122 municipalities/cities in the region compared to 163 postal facilities in 1991. On the average, about 41,759 persons are covered by one post office, more than twice the ideal ratio of 1:20,000 postal stationto-population ratio. Also, the letter carrier - distribution ratio is 1:6,448 which is below the standard ratio of 1:5000. However, despite these limitations, most municipalities receive their mail matters daily. Telephone Services Most of the telephone services are provided by private franchise operators such as PLDT, DIGITEL and PILTEL. As of 1995, the region has a total capacity of 43,160 lines serving 54 municipalities/cities out of the total 122. With a population of 6,932,137 for year 1995, Central Luzon has a telephone density of 0.62 lines for every 100 people. Among the provinces, only Pampanga exceeded the regional status in providing this type of services. Most of exchangers are interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Authorized public telecommunications carrier are now required to interconnect to PSTN to create a universally accessible and fully integrated nationwide telecommunications network. The PSTN is being used to carry non-voice services such as facsimile and switched data. Dial-up data service is connected in the same way and access to pocketswitched data network is often accomplished via dial-up facilities. Private lines carrying voice, telegraph and data services are available using the PSTN and record carrier infrastructure. On local exchange services, PLDT serves more than 90% of main stations. It also primarily operates the national long distance services since it has extensive nationwide backbone transmission networks. Other listed carriers are: TELOF, PT & T, RCPT, DIGITEL which operate public long distance telephone calling booths in various parts of the country. Cellular mobile telephone services are provided by PILTEL, Smart and EXTELCOM with nationwide coverage. Telegraph Stations and Radio Telegraph Station At present, there are 100 line telegraph stations and 114 radio telegraph stations servicing the 122 municipalities/cities of the region. This is an improvement of the situation in 1986 when the region had only 85 line and 33 radio telegraph stations. This improvement is a result of the government program of modernizing the telecommunication systems.
Power supply facilities in Central Luzon have a total generating capacity of about 703 MW accounting for 15.2% of Luzon grid capacity of 4,604.8 MW as of 1992. Peak load was estimated at 520 MW in 1992 accounting for 16% of Luzon grid at 3,250 MW. About 50 percent of the region's generating capacity comes from hydroelectric power plants in Angat (Bulacan) and Pantabangan (Nueva Ecija) while the rest are contributed by the thermal and gas turbine power plants in Limay (Bataan). The gross power generation of the existing plants are registered at 1992 GWH (see Table 6.5).1/ This can sufficiently supply the requirements of the region. Organization for the power supply system in Central Luzon consists of NPC for power generation, twelve electric cooperatives and private power utilities for power distribution (see Table 6.6). NPC is responsible for power generation and sales to electric cooperatives, utilities and big industrial consumers. Since 1986, all municipalities in Central Luzon are enjoying electricity. At the barangay level, electrification coverage is estimated at 86.6 percent in 1992. Household coverage is placed at 81.3 percent (see Table 6.7). ___________________________ 1/ In 1994, Angat, Pantabangan Hydroelectric plants and the thermal and gas turbine in Bataan have a plants' rated capacity of 1,228 MW already. Power program for Central Luzon includes the Bataan Nuclear plant. Should its conversion to a natural gas plant proceed as expected, this will add another 1,500 MW. The Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project is expected to increase Pantabangan Dam's capacity by about 150 MW. Also, transmission lines (TL) are being expanded to complement the power generating projects. Specifically, the Masinloc-Labrador 230KV TL project and San Manuel (Pangasinan)-San Jose (Bulacan) projects are both expected to be finished in 1997. The identified 114 mini-hydro sites are expected to contribute about 94MW and Mt. Pinatubo and Mt. Natib in terms of geothermal power can contribute about 20 MW. Table 6.1 TOURISM RELATED ESTABLISHMENTS
Source: Provincial Socio-Economic Profiles, 1995 Table 6.2 STATUS OF WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 1/
1/ Source: Master Plan Study for Central Luzon Development Program, 1995 Table 6. CLASSIFICATION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY USUAL MEANS OF GARBAGE DISPOSAL, 1990
Source: 1990 Census of Population and Housing, National Statistics Office Table 6. STATUS OF COMMUNICATION 1/
Source: NTL, 1995 1/ - Density: No. of Main Telephone Lines (per 100 persons) Table 6. POWER PLANT OF NPC IN CENTRAL LUZON
Source: National Power Corporation 1/ Energy generation is already included in Angat P/S Table .6 PROVINCIAL JURISDICTION OF POWER SUPPLY IN CENTRAL LUZON
Table 6.7 ELECTRIFICATION RATIO
Source: National Electrification Administration and MERALCO _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Final Report for the Tourism Master Plan for Region III (Central Luzon) Engineering and Development Corporation of the Philippines (EDCOP) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||